Adams & Kramnik Lead in Dortmund After Round 5

Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik are tied for first place after five rounds at the 41st Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, Germany. The two players scored 4/5 and are 1.5 points ahead of Arkadij Naiditsch, Georg Meier and Wang Hao. Adams drew with Peter Leko in round 4, and then beat Wang Hao the next day as the Chinese grandmaster blundered a full piece. Kramnik beat both Georg Meier and Peter Leko and caught Adams in first place.

Vladimir Kramnik is slowly but surely getting back into shape. After a disappointing first half of 2013, the 14th World Champion seems to be back on track and a serious contender for the title in Dortmund - potentially Kramnik's 11th title there.

On Monday, the Russian was probably not unhappy with Georg Meier's choice of the Catalan. Having played it so often and successfully with the white pieces, Kramnik must have felt at home in the middlegame as much as he feels at home in Dortmund. In the 10...Ra7 variation, Meier's 12.Qd3 was irregular (the main line goes 12.Qb3) and Kramnik won a pawn. Meier won it back shortly, but then the 25-year-old German became too optimistic and Kramnik refuted his attack with a pretty tactic. Can you find it yourself?

The next day Kramnik won again, this time with White against Peter Leko, his opponent in the 2004 World Championship match in Brissago, Switzerland. Leko has never been an easy opponent for Kramnik, who won the very last game to tie that match and keep his title.

On Tuesday game the middlegame wasn't clear at all (perhaps Black was just better), but with a very ingenious knight sacrifice, not accepted by Leko, Kramnik started to control the game and from that point he played as a true champion.

Michael Adams, who was in sole lead after three rounds, got an easy draw with Black against Peter Leko on Monday. This one shouldn't be too difficult:

In round 5 Adams won against Wang Hao, who blundered a full piece:

Wang Hao has been erratic in the first five rounds. The day before this blunder he produced the following masterpiece:

With 0.5/4 Russian GM Dmitry Andreikin started horribly, but Caissa was on his side in round 5:

The Sparkassen Chess Meeting runs July 26th – 4 August in Dortmund. Wednesday, July 31st is a rest day.

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